Blocks are another part of your eFiction site that let you configure the look and feel of your site. A number of blocks are included with eFiction. You can also create your own or add blocks others have created. The included blocks are as follows:

The first page here lists the blocks available to you. Some will have been pre-installed. The first column lists the name of the block and is not editable. The second column, which you can edit, displays the title of the block as it will be displayed on your site. The third column displays the block's status. There are three possible status options.

• Inactive - The block is completely off.

• Active - The block will load on every page.

• Index Only - The block will load on the index (home) page only.

It is advisable that if the block does not display on every page, you set it to "Index Only" or "Inactive" as this will save on your site's resources. The one exception to this is the Online block. If you use this block, you must set it to "Active" for the block to work properly.

The fourth column, gives you the option to admin the block if there are options to administer.

You may also see the name of a block and the words "Initialize Block" instead of the last three columns. You will see this when a block is available to be installed, but has not been installed yet. The Online, Poll, Search and Shoutbox blocks are not installed by default. Click on "Initialize Block" then change the status of the block to "Active" or "Index Only" to activate it.

Source: https://efiction.org/community/info-tutorials/adding-a-block/

1. First you will need to go into the Admin area of your site and initialize the block if it hasn't been initialized already. Admin->Blocks and click "Initialize Block" for the block you wish to add.

2. On the same page, if the block has already been initialized, you will need to turn it on. The "Status" column of the table has 3 options: Inactive, Active, and Index Only. Inactive is turned off. Active will make it available for all pages. Index Only will make it available on the index page only. If you intend for the block to only appear on the index page set it that way as it will save resources on your site. (ETA: The only exception is the "Who's Online" block which should always be set to "Active" if you have it on.) Click "Submit" to save the changes.

3. If you're using a skin that you didn't create, check the variables.php to see if the block isn't turned off there. Again, if a block is turned off it saves resources for the site so some skins use variables.php to turn blocks off that aren't being used. Look for a line in the file like this:

$blocks['BLOCKNAME']['status'] = 0;

BLOCKNAME will be the name of the block. Delete this line if you find it. You may find other lines that start with:

$blocks['BLOCKNAME']....

These lines will be configuration settings for the block. You may or may not want to delete these lines as well. It is suggested that you leave them until you have the block displaying on the page then delete or edit them one at a time until you get the effect you want.

4. The final step in adding a block to your skin is adding it to the .tpl files. Generally, you will want to add it to either header.tpl, footer.tpl, or index.tpl depending on where (and when) you want it to appear. All of the default blocks can be added using the {BLOCK_title} and {BLOCK_content} variables. Many of the blocks also have more complicated options for adding them to your skins. These variables will generally be surrounded by html in your skin. Open the .tpl file where you want the block to appear then add the {BLOCK_title} and {BLOCK_content} variables to the HTML you find there. Example:

<div class="block">
   <div class="title">{BLOCK_title}</div>
   <div class="content">{BLOCK_content}</div>
</div>